DreamHack Marseille 2018 Preview

16 April 2018 15:59

Sixteen of the world’s finest CS:GO teams are almost ready to battle it out at DreamHack Marseille, the first Masters tournament of the year. With a mighty $250,000 prize pool up for grabs over the course of five days, all eyes will be on Le Dôme de Marseille to see who prevails.

The Format

The CS:GO tournament begins on Wednesday 18th April, with a two-day group stage opening proceedings. The sixteen teams will be divided into four double-elimination groups, with best-of-one opening and elimination matches as well as best-of-three winners and decider matches. The top two teams from each group will progress to the single-elimination, best-of-three quarter and semi-final play-offs, leading onto the show-stopping grand final.

The Teams

The sixteen teams are shown below in their respective groups, along with their odds of winning the tournament outright and the odds of the winners group:

Group A – 2/1

FaZe Clan – 5/1

G2 Esports – 7/1

Cloud9 – 10/1

Team EnVyUs – 100/1

Group B – 9/4

mousesports – 5/1

SK Gaming – 5/1

Ninjas in Pyjamas – 18/1

Valiance – 500/1

Group C – 3/1

Fnatic – 6/1

Natus Vincere – 12/1

Renegades – 50/1

TyLoo – 300/1

Group D – 4/1

Astralis – 11/2

Team Liquid - 10/1

Space Soliders – 22/1

Gambit Esports – 66/1

Twelve of the teams received direct invitations to participate in France, with Valiance and Space Soldiers coming through their respective European Qualifiers. Renegades progressed through their North American qualifier, whilst TyLoo secured their spot after triumphing in their Asian Qualifier.

A European region is favourite to prevail in France, odds-on at 3/10 in the Region of Winner betting markets, whilst a North American team is 12/5 to go all the way and the odds of an Asian team causing an upset are a distant 300/1.

Prize Pool

The $250,000 prize pool is split amongst the sixteen teams, based on their overall position:

1st place - $100,000

2nd place - $50,000

3rd-4th place - $22,000

5th–8th place - $10,000

9th–16th place - $2,000

The Odds

Although SK Gaming, FaZe Clan and mousesports are all joint pre-tournament favourites on paper at 5/1, it looks like a very close field and isn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion regarding the winner. Those three teams may be the most fancied prior to be a button being pushed in sheer desperation or exuberant celebration, but there are other teams who possess more than enough ability and talent within their ranks to push their own claims for victory.

Cloud9 had a fruitful 2017 – with 1st place finished at the DreamHack Open Denver 2017 a particular highlight – and have started 2018 in similar fashion after triumphing in the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018. Although 10/1 with the bookmakers to win DreamHack Marseille outright, they are well equipped to cause a surprise, and the likes of Team EnVyUs, Tyloo and Valiance shouldn’t be written off either, although they appear to be a little unfancied at 100/1, 300/1 and 500/1 respectively.

Who To Look Out For

NiKo, although only 21 years of age, has caught the eye since switching over to FaZe Clan from mousesports in February 2017. The Bosnian-born gamer built his reputation at mousesports, but he has maintained and enhanced his standing since joining FaZe, and it’s clear to see why he’s one of the frontrunners to claim the prestigious HLTV MVP accolade in Marseille.

The Rifler and AWPer helped his team win multiple titles last year, including the ESL One: New York 2017, ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2017 and StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 3, so fans flocking to France will be eager to see NiKo in action, and followers of FaZe should have realistic expectations their team can go all the way.

Elsewhere, despite being priced further afield at 25/1 in the HLTV MVP betting stakes, mousesports’ Estonian-born Robin "ropz" Kool is another player to keep an eye on as the action unfolds. The 18-year-old rifler has already been in striking form this year, helping his team to 1st place in both the StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4 and V4 Future Sports Festival – Budapest 2018. mousesports triumphed in Budapest with a 2-1 best-of-three grand final victory over Virtus.pro, and ropz more than played his part with 52 kills, a 74.7 ADR and 76.4% KAST.